Tools Matter!

Anyone who has used heavy-handed project management tools like Jira or TFS should realize that process isn't driven so much by management or theory as it is by the technology you choose to govern yourself. The tool you use to manage your work is what truly constrains you. It quickly becomes the round hole through which every square peg must pass. It is the wall that bloodies as you pound your forehead against it—ever immovable.

Consequently, the battle for real power in a software organization is lost or won when the first check is written to Atlassian, Microsoft, or whomever authors the electronic version of the sticky notes once affixed to the side of your monitor. Now, those sticky notes travel across a flashing Kanban board on a screen mounted above your desk, weighed down by a dozen required tags and annotations. They’re tracked, estimated, and aggregated into a multitude of meaningless reports.

If you don’t like it, you can complain. Your manager might even agree it’s less than ideal. "But that’s the way the tool works, so we’re going to have to make do. It’s too much trouble to change." And so the great tragedy plays out again, as millions of workers are forced into the bureaucratic hell of their digital overlords.